A’s Take Two at Home in Bay Series
The two games in Oakland go to the A’s.
The Oakland Athletics (30-23) manage to win both Bay Series’ games in Oakland winning the 2nd one last night 6-3. The A’s have now won five straight.
The San Francisco Giants (28-24) sent out Triple A pitcher Mike Kickham (L, 0-1) to the mound making his MLB debut. Kickham failed to go beyond the third, however, being pulled after allowing 4 earned runs.
“He showed good stuff early. I’m sure he was amped up and then he got behind hitters but I liked what he showed,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said about Kickham. “It’s his first outing, and that’s always one to put behind you.”
A’s catcher Derek Norris hit a two run home run off of Kickham in the 2nd inning. It was Norris’ 2nd home run of the season.
Then in the 3rd inning after walking in a run and allowing an RBI single by Nate Freiman, Kickham was pulled in favor of George Kontos from the Bullpen. Kontos would get Derek Norris to pop out to 2nd and then came out so that Javy Lopez could get left handed hitter Seth Smith to strike out to end the inning.
Chad Gaudin would come in and pitch 3 innings for the Giants starting in the 4th. Gaudin’s only blemish was walking in a run in the 5th inning to make it 5-1 for the A’s.
As for Oakland’s pitching, Jarrod Parker (W, 3-6) went 7 innings only allowing 2 runs in the start. Hunter Pence hit an RBI single in the top of the 1st and then in the 6th, the Giants would get their 2nd run on a ground out by Buster Posey allowing Marco Scutaro to score from third.
Each team would tack on another run apiece in the later innings. Adam Rosales of the A’s hit his third home run of the year off of Jose Mijares in the 8th. Then in the top of the 9th with 1 out, Hunter Pence hit a solo shot to left center, his 8th of the year, to cut the deficit to three again.
A’s closer Grant Balfour would recover from Pence’s home run and get the last two batters out via strikeouts.
Game one of the series went to the A’s by a final of 4-1. All four of Oakland’s runs went against Madison Bumgarner (L, 4-3). Josh Donaldson hit a two run home run off of Bumgarner in the 4th inning and then after Madison left the game in the 7th leaving two runners on base, Yoenis Cespedes hit a two run double to make it 4-1.
The only run of that game for the Giants came in the 6th when Buster Posey grounded out to short allowing Gregor Blanco to score from 3rd.
Gregor Blanco was first in the batting order for both games as Angel Pagan is still working through a hamstring injury. Pagan is listed day-to-day.
The Bay Series now heads to AT&T Park for two more games. San Francisco’s probables are Tim Lincecum (3-4) and Barry Zito (3-3). Oakland’s probables are Tommy Milone (4-5) and A.J. Griffin (5-3).